Car brochures and catalogues. Do you collect them?

[Dippy]

As a kid I always had this fancy to collect brochures of the models on display in the showroom. Every Friday (which is a holiday in the UAE) my dad used to take me to car showrooms all over and I used to pick up these catalogues. I had built up quite a collection from the catalogues and brochures I aquired from the showrooms and motorshows I attended. I still have some left from those days and i know how special they are today hence I brought up this topic

Unfortunately the brochures we are offered here in the Indian car dealerships are nothing but a 2 page thingy whereas the stuff I got for the same model abroad was a booklet of atleast 10 to 15 pages. Even when I saw the W124 Merc in India at the dealership i was initially given a 2 page brochure but after insisting I wanted something better the sales guy gave me a complete 30 page catalogue on the W124 E Class.

Another example the Toyota Corolla. While I got a 10 page catalogue in Dubai, here when I visited Toyota I just got a 1 page excuse of a catalogue which just had info on the two sides of that paper

So was just wanting to know how many of us collect these catalogues and brochures and keep them and which are the most exclulsive in your collection

And do you think we need better brochures for the cars available in India?

[.anshuman]

i used to collect them when i was a kid but now when i have most of the information in my mind and i buy 5 magazines evey month dont need those brochures which are often misguiding except for tech specs.

[islero]

I have a large brochure collection of a lot of indian cars, and a few foreign ones.

highlights of my collection are:

An old Mercedes S-class brochure, which is very thick and is beautiful to even hold in one's hands.( model is the one before the previous one)
A series of small Mercedes handouts covering all their models.
A japanese BMW brochure with their entire model range.
A toyota brochure with their entire range(I mean entire, there are lots and lots!!)
Alpine stereo book-style brochure.
Ok this might sound a little cheap but a handout with the 1998 Ferrari f1 contender and specs of it.( I call it my 'ferrari' brochure, I guess it is!! It was actually handed out by Fiat at the auto expo)

Among the indian makes
almost all the Ikon brochures exept the really early ones.
other ford brochures for mondeo endeavour(I am looking for escort brochures)

I also have brochure ranges from maruti, fiat, hyundai, skoda, tata, toyota, gm etc.

btw I dont collect the small leaflets, I only collect the proper brochures, the 'big' ones.
Some indian makes are highly stingy with their real brochures, giving the normal passerby a crappy leaflet. When I was younger, I would make sure I got at least one copy of a proper brochure from the salesman!!! I really was brochure crazy then!!!

Have not collected brochures for a while now, thanks for reminding me to catch up, dippy. I must continue, I have the whole collection neatly filed.

Ill post more about my favourites form my indian range later.

[GTO]

Dippy

I have a ton of brochures from all the test drives during the Boston days. Feel free to come by and pick them up.

but after insisting I wanted something better the sales guy gave me a complete 30 page catalogue on the W124 E Class.

I WANT A COPY!

GTO

[binz]

Originally Posted by Dippy

As a kid I always had this fancy to collect brochures of the models on display in the showroom. Every Friday (which is a holiday in the UAE) my dad used to take me to car showrooms all over and I used to pick up these catalogues.
.................................................. .......................
So was just wanting to know how many of us collect these catalogues and brochures and keep them and which are the most exclulsive in your collection

And do you think we need better brochures for the cars available in India?

Hmm the only thing i used to do when i was a kid in dubai was read the weekly ''friday'' magazine.Never really into cars but i still have the catalogues of the two ''new'' cars that my dad bought i.e. the hyundai galloper(im gonna start a thread on the problems we faced with this car) and the mitsubishi magna which had an amazing brochure.

binz

[Dippy]

Originally Posted by GTO

Dippy

I have a ton of brochures from all the test drives during the Boston days. Feel free to come by and pick them up.



I WANT A COPY!

GTO

I dont have an extra copy GTO but I'll get it along to show you sometime during our meets

@ islero :

Great collection of brochures you have there. The S Class brochure you mentioned must be of the W140, the Mercedes tank

I have some BMW brochures from my Dubai days including a larger than life size 7 series brochure. Others include some nice big catalogues of the Land Rover Discovery old gen, Range Rover SE old gen and the Defender.

I do have the SL catalogue along with that of the CLS. The otherse being the C and the E Class. I have an SLK brochure too the first gen one.Thats all I have in Merc.

From the most recent ones I have

Audi : TT, A6 and A8L (Really good they come in folders)

Bentley : The Flying Spur

Porsche: 911 Carrera S, New Boxter, Cayman ( They are actually hardbound books of 150 pages each, cant call them catalogues totally collector pieces) and a Porsche line up brochure

[devarshi84]

I do collect all the stuff about both cars and bikes.

. I have all the brochures of cars and bikes released until 2004 December.

I also have a brochure of 118ne, padmini and Contessa.

[JagMan]

I used to tag along with my dad when he would go to the Local Auto Shows and pick up a tonne of Flyers, but never kept much of them. Most of them were for things other than complete vehicles, very rarely would a manufacturer display a vehicle in the auto shows in chennai. Would like to make it to next years auto expo in delhi though, took extra leaves just so i would have time ) .

[islero]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I also have a brochure of 118ne, padmini and Contessa.

Damn!!! Even I want a Padmini brochure!!!!!!! I just love that car.

[amit]

And do you think we need better brochures for the cars available in India?

I totally agree with that. I remember my Matiz brochure was not at all great but then it was in 1999 when the auto scene was just opening up. Surprisingly, Fiat's brochure for the S10 was pretty good. It was a little book with really neat photographs.

Here in Canada, VW has some really cool brochure's for their cars. The Jetta and Beetle brochures come with a DVD! Ironically the more expensive Passat doesn't have the DVD. The brochure though is pretty okay. It's a little booklet actually but some nice photographs. GM's brochure's here are a real excuse. Sure they are pretty thick but the photographs and words are nothing great.

[mahi0375]

Originally Posted by Dippy

Unfortunately the brochures we are offered here in the Indian car dealerships

For BBS he has given a 100 page brochures for me .......

[Dippy]

mahi do you mean the BBS alloys guys?

@ Even I had a 118 NE brochure and even an Ambassador one. But they were just two page flyers and nothing more.

I have one brochure of the original Suzuki Swift which is around 10 pages. This the Type 1 Esteem (or 1000) shape car. half Arabic, half English

[mahi0375]

And i have GS400 brochure from UAE and it has opposite direction while turning the pages (right to left)....

Yes bbs wheels and 60 page brochure for Ractive products which is cool.

[Dippy]

Great stuff mahi. The Gulf is the place to get the proper car brochures and catalogues from

[GTO]

I dont have an extra copy GTO but I'll get it along to show you sometime during our meets

How about a clean xerox?

GTO